KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the recently-formed Kerala module of the Islamic State (IS) arrested its founder Siyed Nabeel Ahammad from Chennai on Wednesday.
Thrissur native Nabeel was tracked by the NIA special squad assigned to track down fugitives involved in terrorism cases.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a transnational terrorist group that is also known as Islamic State (IS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as well as by its Arabic acronym Da'ish or Daesh.
NIA officials will bring him to Kochi on Thursday and will produce him before the NIA court in Kochi. The anti-terrorism agency has recovered digital devices from Nabeel which will be sent for forensic analysis after being presented before the NIA court.
It was in July this year that the NIA found that a new group affiliated with the IS based in Kerala was trying to recruit youngsters and planning terror strikes and target killings in south India.
After registering a case, the NIA team tracked down Mathilakath Kodayil Ashraf alias Ashif of Thrissur in Sathyamangalam forest.
Apart from Ashif, the other co-accused are Nabeel, Shiyas TS, and Rayees.
The NIA questioned has Shiyas as part of the probe multiple times.
However, after the arrest of Ashif, Nabeel went underground, leaving Kerala and moving to Karnataka before shifting to Tamil Nadu.
NIA officers said that Nabeel reached Chennai to travel to Nepal and that he had arranged a fake passport as well. They are checking the itinerary of Nabeel to see if he had plans to join the IS abroad.
Nabeel had switched off his mobile phone after the NIA arrested Ashif in July this year and he then procured fake SIM cards.
The group was into dacoities as part of raising funds for furthering activities of the IS in Kerala, sources said. They were also on a reconnaissance mission for potential terror strikes.